Physical and Mechanical Properties of High-Density Concrete Incorporating Barite (BaSO₄) as Coarse aggregate & Recycled Glass Powder as a Partial Replacement to Fine Aggregate

High-Density concrete (HDC) is commonly used for radiation shielding of nuclear reactors/power plants and other structures like counter weights, coating of off-shore pipelines, medical facilities, and industrial facilities where radioactive materials are used or stored. High-Density concrete is designed by using heavyweight aggregates such as hematite, barite, magnetite and so on. Integral part of this study is replacing the normal coarse aggregate by heavyweight aggregate (Barite), and using recycled glass powder (RGP) as a partial replacement to fine aggregate (natural river sand) from 0% to 60% by volume of fine aggregate (FA) at 20% intervals. Five series of concrete mixes with a total number of 80 specimens (cubes and cylinders) of the same compressive strength of 30 MPa (M30 grade) are produced, casted, and tested as per the requirements of Engineering Standard codes. For all the casted concrete specimens, the density, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and workability are being tested, determined, and analysed at the curing ages of 7 & 28 days. This comprehensive investigation aims to provide valuable insights into the relationship between barite coarse aggregate and density as well as the compressive and split tensile strength of HDC, and the effects of RGP on physical and mechanical properties of HDC. The findings from this research will contribute to a deeper understanding of the optimization of HDC mix designs, enabling the development of more resilient and durable concrete structures in various applications. From this experimental study, it is observed that the use of barite coarse aggregate instead of normal aggregate in concrete leads to a significant increase in density and workability of HDC as well as its compressive and split tensile strengths. Similarly, the use of RGP as a partial replacement to fine aggregate up to a certain limit, causes a significant increase in compressive and split tensile strengths of HDC.